Local player making history in new Israel Baseball League

While most young boys have no trouble joining a baseball team, Josh Epstein exhausted his elementary school summers searching for someone who would just help him break in his glove.

AP photoFans take in the action over the weekend during the first game of the new Israel Baseball League.

Epstein was at a loss for baseball buddies because he left Beachwood every summer from first through sixth grade to visit his grandparents in Israel -- where baseball players were as common as lake-effect snow.

Until now.

Epstein, who grew up to be a starting pitcher at Beachwood High School and Division III Ramapo College, has taken a hiatus from his career as a financial advisor and returned to Israel to introduce the nation to the game as part of the six-team, professional Israel Baseball League.

"Baseball is my life, and playing professionally is every kid's dream," said the 23-year-old Epstein, who will pitch for the Petach Tikva Pioneers. "But the chance to do it in Israel is even more special."

The first pitch of the IBL, the brain child of Boston-based businessman Larry Baras, was thrown out Sunday in front of a capacity crowd of 3,112 fans at the Yarkon Sports Compex -- one of three baseball fields around Tel Aviv that the IBL will use for its inaugural 45-game season. The Modi'in Miracle trounced the Pioneers, 9-1, in the opener.

The IBL features 120 players from eight countries, including Israel, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Columbia and Japan. About 60 percent of the league is American, and 35 to 40 percent of the players are Jewish, according to IBL president and chief operating officer Martin Berger.

Berger and Director of Baseball Operations Dan Duquette, the former general manager of the Boston Red Sox and Montreal Expos, held several tryouts throughout the world to find enough players to fill the league and reach their goal of a league with single-A talent level.

"At first it was a stretch to find players," said Berger, who is a Miami-based civil trial attorney. "But as word spread, players have been coming to us, and we've actually had to turn some away."

All of the IBL players will live expense-free in dormitories on the campus of Hakfar Hayarok in Ramat Hasharon, a village just north of Tel Aviv. Aside from their on-field duties, players will also help run baseball clinics and camps for local children.

Yet despite free housing, meals, transportation, and a $1,000-a-month stipend, Epstein admitted that he too was skeptical when first asked to tryout for the IBL.

"I originally turned it down, because I had just taken a job as a financial adviser and I had just passed all these tests," said Epstein, whose manager is former MLB pitcher Ken Holtzman. "The more I thought about it, the more I knew this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up."

Berger said league officials plan on expanding to eight teams and 60 games next season. He said he also wants to find individual investors willing to buy each team by 2010.

But for now, a partnership with the Jewish National Fund and support from MLB has helped fund and legitimize the start-up league. MLB commissioner Bud Selig, his wife, Sue, and daughter, former Milwaukee Brewers CEO Wendy Selig-Prieb, are on the IBL's Advisory Committee.

IBL executives also strive to aid baseball's global expansion by fielding an Israeli team for the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Due to the WBC's lax eligibility rules, any Jew could compete for Israel, including MLB players Shawn Green of the Mets, Brad Ausmus of the Astros, Mike Lieberthal of the Dodgers, Kevin Youkilis of the Red Sox and John Grabow of the Pirates.

Although the IBL's future is hazy, Epstein and 119 other baseball players will get at least one more chance to not only play the game, but also to share baseball with the Israeli population -- the most rewarding part of playing in the IBL.